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        <title>Christian Droulers :: Quake style command line in Windows</title>
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            <h1>Christian Droulers</h1>
            <h2>Agile and flexible programmer</h2>
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            <h2>Quake style command line in Windows</h2>

<p>For those who like to have a command line handy while developing (as you should!) and dislike cmd.exe (for extremely valid reasons, I am sure), I have found a good way.</p>

<p>Steps:</p>

<ol>
<li>Setup Console (it's a feature-full replacement for the boring cmd.exe).
<ol>
<li>Download it <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/">here</a>.</li>
<li>Extract it where you want. e.g. C:\console</li>
<li>Make sure it's accessible from your <a href="http://geekswithblogs.net/renso/archive/2009/10/21/how-to-set-the-windows-path-in-windows-7.aspx">path</a>. If you put console in C:\console, just add ";C:\console\" to your current one.</li>
<li>Get the pre-made configuration file <a href="https://code.google.com/p/cdroulers-utilities/source/browse/#hg%2Ftools%2Fconsole">console.xml</a> in my <a href="http://code.google.com/p/cdroulers-utilities/">Google Code repository</a> and copy it in the Console directory.</li>
</ol></li>
<li>Setup <a href="http://www.autohotkey.com/">AutoHotKey</a> (it's a tool to set global shortcuts and more in Windows)
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.autohotkey.com/download/AutoHotkeyInstall.exe">Download</a> and install it.</li>
<li>Get the other configuration file, <a href="https://code.google.com/p/cdroulers-utilities/source/browse/#hg%2Ftools%2Fconsole">quake-terminal.ahk</a> from the same <a href="http://code.google.com/p/cdroulers-utilities/">repository</a> and copy it where you like, the AutoHotKey directory is not a bad idea</li>
<li>Finally, put a link to the quake-terminal.ahk in Startup folder of the start menu so you don't have to run it manually every time you start your computer.</li>
</ol></li>
<li>You are all set! The script is set up to use Ctrl + # (key to the left of "1"), but it can be changed if you edit the file quake-terminal.ahk.</li>
</ol>

<h3>The final result!</h3>

<p><a href="quake-style.png"><img src="quake-style.png" alt="Screenshot of final look" /></a></p>

<h2>Final thoughts</h2>

<p>You can find the original tutorial <a href="http://geekswithblogs.net/renso/archive/2009/10/21/how-to-set-the-windows-path-in-windows-7.aspx">here</a>.</p>

<p>Bonus: Install cygwin and add the bin path to your environment path for awesome unixy tools!</p>

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            © <a href="mailto:webmaster@cdroulers.com">Christian Droulers</a> 2013 | <a href="https://code.google.com/p/cdroulers-website/source/browse/">Source</a>
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